The inertia that results from so-called conventional wisdom about how behavior works is a big obstacle to the widespread adoption of positive reinforcement-based training. Discussions quickly devolve into rancorous debates based on little more than personal belief and political affiliations. One example is the intrinsic vs. extrinsic reinforcement debate.

It’s the reality with horse training and horse ownership—we need to ask a horse to move its body in many ways, both on the ground and in the saddle. We need to teach the horses to move forward, backward, toward us, away from us, and to move the front legs, the hind legs, and a combination of both.